Engaging women’s social concerns through the twenty-first century feminist art projects of three Nigerian women artists

Abstract

In this paper, I review the histories of feminism and African feminism to highlight their influence on the evolving nature of women’s art practices in the West and Africa respectively. Women Artists in the West had begun deploying feminist rhetoric in their art at the onset of second-wave feminism of the 1960s. On the other hand, women in Africa began using their art to engender intellectual discourses on African feminist concerns as recently as the mid-1990s. Using the works of three Nigerian women artists, Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, Lucy Azubuike, and Fati Abubakar, I, therefore, explore how their themes challenge critical issues that affect women in Nigeria’s twenty-first-century contemporary realities. These artists are also from different geopolitical areas (west, east, and north respectively) in Nigeria. In analyzing their art, I also argue that their art may offer possibilities in affirming the relevance of African feminist art.